Done ourselves proud on all fronts this season

[jeycov]

Mar 18, 2012 23:50:37 GMT lagwafis said:

you can sugar coat it all or make it sound like shit in equal measure. People tend to go either side of the spectrum on here with little middle ground.

Fair summary in the original post. Some good cup runs in recent years, people point at some lesser opposition but then we've also knocked out Man City, Arsenal and Spurs too at various points. The Europa League was great progress into the unknown and not something we can just compare to knocking out a couple of 'Division One' teams. At the same time it looks like it's taken its toll on us after such a hectic December. Overall though we're mid table and in no real danger.

I'm also with oldgit57. It does feel we've gone backwards to an extent this season. We haven't looked as balanced as the side compared to the settled unit (minus Matty's injury) that finished last season. Pulis can frustrate me as much as anyone - the pointless tinkering with such a successful defence at the start of the season, no adequate back up to some of our more important players (Pennant and Etherington), the over cautious approach, talk of longer contacts for players we need to replace, money spent /sometimes wasted and the WP signing that hasn't worked out to date.

Overall though, and regardless of how much a cynic I can be of Pulis, some of the knee jerk negative reaction on here does get embarrassing.

Well said, the season has been a mixture of disappointment and success. Fine line in many ways - just what would this forum look like this morning if we had won or drawn yesterday?
The first half performance v Liverpool was extremely encouraging, entertaining football for a good proportion of the 45 minutes.
Sadly a "not quite good enough"performance.


We have a lot more to learn at this level of football, by 'we" I mean management, players and fans. As players improve / decline one major challenge is to maintain and improve a balanced side.

Let's look forward to another season in the Premiership, some shrewd business in the transfer market - both buying and selling - and to further improvements. A top 10 finish should be our target for the remainder of the season - (one third of the total games to play yet!)

We also need to stick together -

[sheikhmomo]

History will certainly be kinder to this season than a large section of our fans have been. Its right up there as one of our best ever in terms of achievement.

Looking at some of the criticism from the usual suspects yesterday, I can conclude they will never be happy. This is not a 'fuck up the Vale message' more a 'seriously do something else with your weekends, this Stoke lark isn't for you'

[foster]

IMO, we haven't done anything spectacular this season. We've played at our level on all fronts. I'd say it's an average season.

Aside from the glory ties in the Europa league I would agree that our general performances have made it largely forgettable. I would have liked to see us play with more attacking impetus since I don't think we would have been any less successful had we tried to play a bit more football.

[luke45]

Mar 18, 2012 23:50:37 GMT lagwafis said:

you can sugar coat it all or make it sound like shit in equal measure. People tend to go either side of the spectrum on here with little middle ground.

Fair summary in the original post. Some good cup runs in recent years, people point at some lesser opposition but then we've also knocked out Man City, Arsenal and Spurs too at various points. The Europa League was great progress into the unknown and not something we can just compare to knocking out a couple of 'Division One' teams. At the same time it looks like it's taken its toll on us after such a hectic December. Overall though we're mid table and in no real danger.

I'm also with oldgit57. It does feel we've gone backwards to an extent this season. We haven't looked as balanced as the side compared to the settled unit (minus Matty's injury) that finished last season. Pulis can frustrate me as much as anyone - the pointless tinkering with such a successful defence at the start of the season, no adequate back up to some of our more important players (Pennant and Etherington), the over cautious approach, talk of longer contacts for players we need to replace, money spent /sometimes wasted and the WP signing that hasn't worked out to date.

Overall though, and regardless of how much a cynic I can be of Pulis, some of the knee jerk negative reaction on here does get embarrassing.

That's a fair post, can't disagree with much of that. I would agree that our style of play has regressed compared to what we were producing towards the ends of last season. I find it just as frustrating as the next person to watch at times, and as you say, I'm sure it is largely down to an unbalanced and unsettled team.

As much as Tuncay didn't suit our system, we are still paying the price for his sale, because we've failed to bring in any wing cover since. The Woodgate full-back idea was bizarre aswell, I'm desperately hoping we do the sensible thing and don't give him those 3 extra appearances that will activate a new contract.

I'm desperately hoping we can start getting the best out of Palacios soon, because I'm sure we can all agree we've got a terrific player on our hands if we do. We've seen glimpses of his quality this season but worryingly he still doesn't seem to have more than 60 minutes in him.

The whole point of my original post really was just to try and gain some perspective amongst the moaners on here. I'm not going to try and convince anyone that our Football has been great, we've looked desperately devoid of invention at times, but in my opinion, putting points on the board is the main objective, and an entertaining style of Football is a bonus.

Whilst we continue to progress as a Football club I will applaud the efforts of TP and the lads, and hopefully an evolution in our approach will be the next step in our progress.

[onionman]

Mar 19, 2012 8:17:34 GMT @robvandeurzen83 said:

Mar 19, 2012 0:46:26 GMT onionman said:

The blueprint worked mainly because both wingers were firing and Walters played out of his skin.

That happened for about a quarter of last season, when we were brilliant.

This season, with Ethers out of sorts, Walters either found out or come down from an unnatural high, and Pennant being a prat, we were never going to be as brilliant, no matter what Pulis did.

Huth and Woodgate at right-back were stupid decisions by Pulis, but in general the averageness of our performances may just reflect the averageness of our players (in Premier League terms).

They hit a high when everything clicked, but it was impossible to sustain.

At some point every season we play some good stuff and create more though. Even in our first season when Lawrence came back. This season we're yet to see that. It's been pretty turgid.

All three of those players benefited from us having more mobility up front last season. Sorry to keep banging on about that, but it's the truth. There's less space and less to aim for now which means we're not creating as much.

TP could have got another winger in and could have given Walters a rest and hasn't, so he has to take the rap for those decisions.

We have lost some mobility with Jones being dropped, but I don't think that's the reason those three players haven't hit the heights of last season.

Pennant has done at Stoke what he's done throughout his career. Played brilliantly at first and failed to be arsed after that.

Walters' whole career has included a couple of months of being a top class Premier League striker, and about a decade of being an honest plodding journeyman. When his career finishes, people will be wondering how the hell he managed to have such a brilliant couple of months in 2010/11; they won't be wondering what went wrong for him in 2011/12. Occasionally average strikers just hit a purple patch when they play above themselves and score goals for fun. But ultimately they can't sustain it. Carl Saunders in 86/87, Simon Sturridge in 95/96, even Dave Kitson for a season at Reading. Add Walters in 2010/11 to that list.

And Ethers just hasn't looked right all season. Whether it's down to his injury or off the field problems or what I don't know. But before this season there were times he carried our whole attack single-handedly match after match, no matter how much pace or mobility we had in the middle. He just doesn't seem to want to do that at the moment.

All those three things would have happened whether Jones or Crouch were up front this season.

Plus there's an element of being found out. The first time we saw a deliberate game plan to kick our wingers out the game, I think, was the Cup final. Since then it's become common knowledge that you stop Ethers and Pennant and you stop Stoke. Injure one of them early doors if you can get away with it, as Kelly did yesterday.

TP should definitely have seen that coming and bought another winger, yes, because Shotton on the wing makes things even worse. He needs to address that in the summer by buying two wingers.

He also needs to sign a Ba type striker to play alongside Crouch.

Do all that and we'll be better than we were in 2010/11. I'm not sure Pulis will do it.

[ruts66]

2012/13 will be interesting - no Europa distraction and plenty of recovery time between matches.

Next season we will find out for certain whether the manager is either willing or capable of evolution. There will be no ready made excuses.

Expectation, Mr Pulis - time to deal with it...

[sheikhmomo]

Mar 19, 2012 12:54:59 GMT ruts66 said:

2012/13

Realistic Expectation, supporters - time to deal with it...

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2012 12:21:46 GMT onionman said:

Mar 19, 2012 8:17:34 GMT @robvandeurzen83 said:

At some point every season we play some good stuff and create more though. Even in our first season when Lawrence came back. This season we're yet to see that. It's been pretty turgid.

All three of those players benefited from us having more mobility up front last season. Sorry to keep banging on about that, but it's the truth. There's less space and less to aim for now which means we're not creating as much.

TP could have got another winger in and could have given Walters a rest and hasn't, so he has to take the rap for those decisions.

We have lost some mobility with Jones being dropped, but I don't think that's the reason those three players haven't hit the heights of last season.

Pennant has done at Stoke what he's done throughout his career. Played brilliantly at first and failed to be arsed after that.

Walters' whole career has included a couple of months of being a top class Premier League striker, and about a decade of being an honest plodding journeyman. When his career finishes, people will be wondering how the hell he managed to have such a brilliant couple of months in 2010/11; they won't be wondering what went wrong for him in 2011/12. Occasionally average strikers just hit a purple patch when they play above themselves and score goals for fun. But ultimately they can't sustain it. Carl Saunders in 86/87, Simon Sturridge in 95/96, even Dave Kitson for a season at Reading. Add Walters in 2010/11 to that list.

And Ethers just hasn't looked right all season. Whether it's down to his injury or off the field problems or what I don't know. But before this season there were times he carried our whole attack single-handedly match after match, no matter how much pace or mobility we had in the middle. He just doesn't seem to want to do that at the moment.

All those three things would have happened whether Jones or Crouch were up front this season.

Plus there's an element of being found out. The first time we saw a deliberate game plan to kick our wingers out the game, I think, was the Cup final. Since then it's become common knowledge that you stop Ethers and Pennant and you stop Stoke. Injure one of them early doors if you can get away with it, as Kelly did yesterday.

TP should definitely have seen that coming and bought another winger, yes, because Shotton on the wing makes things even worse. He needs to address that in the summer by buying two wingers.

He also needs to sign a Ba type striker to play alongside Crouch.

Do all that and we'll be better than we were in 2010/11. I'm not sure Pulis will do it.

Good post and i agree with all of it.

I do think we haven't helped the wingers though bu dicking around with the right back spot early on and by losing that mobility up top. Pennant especially has suffered from that, although I'm inclined to agree that Etherington might have struggled regardless.

I honestly don't think Walters has been as bad as people have made out.

[stokelad84]

Been a very good season, agree with the OP

[k]

Mar 18, 2012 22:42:01 GMT cousindupree said:

If we take away the Europa League exploits, the season would have been instantly forgettable, hardly a memorable performance all season. As for the cup, winning 3 away ties against lower league teams is hardly grounds for such plaudits.

What a daft comment.

...If we take away getting to the cup final last year, that season would have been instantly forgettable.

...If we take away the the 1972 League cup win, that season would have been instantly forgettable (we finished 17th in the league)

...If we take away England winning the 1966 World Cup, then the 1966 World Cup tournament would have been instantly forgettable.

...If we take away the fact that John F Kennedy was shot and killed whislt taking a drive around Dallas, then that drive would have been instantly forgettable...

[ruts66]

Mar 19, 2012 12:56:03 GMT sheikhmomo said:

Mar 19, 2012 12:54:59 GMT ruts66 said:

2012/13

Realistic Expectation, supporters - time to deal with it...

So, we're to expect a repeat of this season's largely tedious, pedestrian dross despite fewer fixtures and distractions? Sorry mate, I'm more ambitious than that...

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2012 13:27:25 GMT ruts66 said:

Mar 19, 2012 12:56:03 GMT sheikhmomo said:

So, we're to expect a repeat of this season's largely tedious, pedestrian dross despite fewer fixtures and distractions? Sorry mate, I'm more ambitious than that...

It'd certainly be nice to create a few more chances and score a few more goals.

[sheikhmomo]

Mar 19, 2012 13:27:25 GMT ruts66 said:

Mar 19, 2012 12:56:03 GMT sheikhmomo said:

So, we're to expect a repeat of this season's largely tedious, pedestrian dross despite fewer fixtures and distractions? Sorry mate, I'm more ambitious than that...

I'll take a mid table finish, a very deep cup run and how we played first half yesterday with absolute pleasure.

[foster]

I'm yearning for some decent football. That is all.

I'm not expecting a European finish or to win a cup. All I want next season is to avoid relegation and try to play a more passing game.

[ruts66]

Mar 19, 2012 13:29:05 GMT sheikhmomo said:

Mar 19, 2012 13:27:25 GMT ruts66 said:

So, we're to expect a repeat of this season's largely tedious, pedestrian dross despite fewer fixtures and distractions? Sorry mate, I'm more ambitious than that...

I'll take a mid table finish, a very deep cup run and how we played first half yesterday with absolute pleasure.

Absolutely, but how many of those first halves have we produced this season. Where there's a will and all that...

[staffordstokie999]

overall its been a good season, frustrating at times but to get to the last 32 in Europe was a great achievement. We'd all like to see a bit more but to expect us to be more than a mid table team with some good cup runs could be very dangerous.

[jstoke7]

Mar 19, 2012 13:31:22 GMT foster said:

I'm yearning for some decent football. That is all.

I'm not expecting a European finish or to win a cup. All I want next season is to avoid relegation and try to play a more passing game.

Ding Ding Ding Ding!

Remember though, do we wanna be another Blackpool and end up playing that tippy-tappy shit that doesn't even exist and is just the way football is generally played nowadays?

[foster]

Mar 19, 2012 13:36:03 GMT jstoke7 said:

Mar 19, 2012 13:31:22 GMT foster said:

I'm yearning for some decent football. That is all.

I'm not expecting a European finish or to win a cup. All I want next season is to avoid relegation and try to play a more passing game.

Ding Ding Ding Ding!

Remember though, do we wanna be another Blackpool and end up playing that tippy-tappy shit that doesn't even exist and is just the way football is generally played nowadays?

More of the first half of yesterday will do me.

I'm not fussy. Ask my wife.

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2012 13:36:00 GMT @staffordstokie999 said:

overall its been a good season, frustrating at times but to get to the last 32 in Europe was a great achievement. We'd all like to see a bit more but to expect us to be more than a mid table team with some good cup runs could be very dangerous.

I don't think that many people beyond the usual loonies do expect us to be more than that to be honest.

I'd just like to see us be more positive and less one-dimensional.

[onionman]

Mar 19, 2012 13:04:14 GMT @robvandeurzen83 said:

Mar 19, 2012 12:21:46 GMT onionman said:

We have lost some mobility with Jones being dropped, but I don't think that's the reason those three players haven't hit the heights of last season.

Pennant has done at Stoke what he's done throughout his career. Played brilliantly at first and failed to be arsed after that.

Walters' whole career has included a couple of months of being a top class Premier League striker, and about a decade of being an honest plodding journeyman. When his career finishes, people will be wondering how the hell he managed to have such a brilliant couple of months in 2010/11; they won't be wondering what went wrong for him in 2011/12. Occasionally average strikers just hit a purple patch when they play above themselves and score goals for fun. But ultimately they can't sustain it. Carl Saunders in 86/87, Simon Sturridge in 95/96, even Dave Kitson for a season at Reading. Add Walters in 2010/11 to that list.

And Ethers just hasn't looked right all season. Whether it's down to his injury or off the field problems or what I don't know. But before this season there were times he carried our whole attack single-handedly match after match, no matter how much pace or mobility we had in the middle. He just doesn't seem to want to do that at the moment.

All those three things would have happened whether Jones or Crouch were up front this season.

Plus there's an element of being found out. The first time we saw a deliberate game plan to kick our wingers out the game, I think, was the Cup final. Since then it's become common knowledge that you stop Ethers and Pennant and you stop Stoke. Injure one of them early doors if you can get away with it, as Kelly did yesterday.

TP should definitely have seen that coming and bought another winger, yes, because Shotton on the wing makes things even worse. He needs to address that in the summer by buying two wingers.

He also needs to sign a Ba type striker to play alongside Crouch.

Do all that and we'll be better than we were in 2010/11. I'm not sure Pulis will do it.

Good post and i agree with all of it.

I do think we haven't helped the wingers though bu dicking around with the right back spot early on and by losing that mobility up top. Pennant especially has suffered from that, although I'm inclined to agree that Etherington might have struggled regardless.

I honestly don't think Walters has been as bad as people have made out.

Walters has been ok, in that he's been the fulcrum of a mid-table Premier League team which is something Richard Cresswell for exampe could only dream of. But the danger is that we pin our hopes on him repeating his form from the end of last season, because I think that incredible run was out of sync with the rest of his career.

With hindsight, it seems obvious Pennant's attitude was going to be a problem this season. I thought TP had fixed him, I was wrong. By failing to sign another winger last summer, it seems TP thought he'd fixed him too. He was wrong.

We're bascially a mid-table team that goes on good runs and bad runs. Sometimes we click and look great, other times we don't and look poor.

[RAF]

Anyone who uses the term 'wristslashers' to illustrate a point loses any credibility whatsoever.

H

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2012 13:45:48 GMT onionman said:

Mar 19, 2012 13:04:14 GMT @robvandeurzen83 said:

Good post and i agree with all of it.

I do think we haven't helped the wingers though bu dicking around with the right back spot early on and by losing that mobility up top. Pennant especially has suffered from that, although I'm inclined to agree that Etherington might have struggled regardless.

I honestly don't think Walters has been as bad as people have made out.

Walters has been ok, in that he's been the fulcrum of a mid-table Premier League team which is something Richard Cresswell for exampe could only dream of. But the danger is that we pin our hopes on him repeating his form from the end of last season, because I think that incredible run was out of sync with the rest of his career.

With hindsight, it seems obvious Pennant's attitude was going to be a problem this season. I thought TP had fixed him, I was wrong. By failing to sign another winger last summer, it seems TP thought he'd fixed him too. He was wrong.

We're bascially a mid-table team that goes on good runs and bad runs. Sometimes we click and look great, other times we don't and look poor.

Not signing one in January was strange as well, having supposedly fallen out with him again.

Agree we're a streaky team, but that historically has always had a lot to do with the manager's whims and neuroses as well. We clicked last season once Carew got injured and he brought both wingers back and stopped pissing around with the full backs. First season we clicked once Lawrence came back and we got Beattie and Ethers in etc.

[onionman]

Mar 19, 2012 13:53:52 GMT @robvandeurzen83 said:

Mar 19, 2012 13:45:48 GMT onionman said:

Walters has been ok, in that he's been the fulcrum of a mid-table Premier League team which is something Richard Cresswell for exampe could only dream of. But the danger is that we pin our hopes on him repeating his form from the end of last season, because I think that incredible run was out of sync with the rest of his career.

With hindsight, it seems obvious Pennant's attitude was going to be a problem this season. I thought TP had fixed him, I was wrong. By failing to sign another winger last summer, it seems TP thought he'd fixed him too. He was wrong.

We're bascially a mid-table team that goes on good runs and bad runs. Sometimes we click and look great, other times we don't and look poor.

Not signing one in January was strange as well, having supposedly fallen out with him again.

Agree we're a streaky team, but that historically has always had a lot to do with the manager's whims and neuroses as well. We clicked last season once Carew got injured and he brought both wingers back and stopped pissing around with the full backs. First season we clicked once Lawrence came back and we got Beattie and Ethers in etc.

You're right about last season, but Pulis deserves credit for us clicking in the first season. We had a poor team for the first few months and had to scrap for every point ... then he made a couple of inspirational signings and we could take the games to teams a bit more.

I think all mid-table teams are streaky aren't they?

We were always streaky in the second division, no matter who the manager - Mills, Pulis, Boskamp. We'd win two in a row and you think we're set for a play-off push, then we'd lose two in a row and you're worried about relegation.

We're doing the same thing in the Premier now. Some people don't like to hear this, but that's progress.

[rawli]

Mar 19, 2012 13:36:03 GMT jstoke7 said:

Mar 19, 2012 13:31:22 GMT foster said:

I'm yearning for some decent football. That is all.

I'm not expecting a European finish or to win a cup. All I want next season is to avoid relegation and try to play a more passing game.

Ding Ding Ding Ding!

Remember though, do we wanna be another Blackpool and end up playing that tippy-tappy shit that doesn't even exist and is just the way football is generally played nowadays?

Jesus Hates Christ - there are more than 2 types of football - it is possible not to play the boring one dimensional shite dished up this season without playing the fabled tippy tappy shit that ends in certain relegation.

We managed to play the kind of football we want for the last quarter of last season. Genuinely exciting football.

I think we have reverted because of the fear of European football leaving us vulnerable to relegation. I hope the manager has the balls to be more entertaining and expansive next year.

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2012 14:13:18 GMT onionman said:

Mar 19, 2012 13:53:52 GMT @robvandeurzen83 said:

Not signing one in January was strange as well, having supposedly fallen out with him again.

Agree we're a streaky team, but that historically has always had a lot to do with the manager's whims and neuroses as well. We clicked last season once Carew got injured and he brought both wingers back and stopped pissing around with the full backs. First season we clicked once Lawrence came back and we got Beattie and Ethers in etc.

You're right about last season, but Pulis deserves credit for us clicking in the first season. We had a poor team for the first few months and had to scrap for every point ... then he made a couple of inspirational signings and we could take the games to teams a bit more.

I think all mid-table teams are streaky aren't they?

We were always streaky in the second division, no matter who the manager - Mills, Pulis, Boskamp. We'd win two in a row and you think we're set for a play-off push, then we'd lose two in a row and you're worried about relegation.

We're doing the same thing in the Premier now. Some people don't like to hear this, but that's progress.

I think most teams outside the top six are indeed streaky and TP does deserve credit for those signings and for getting things to click last season.

I just think if he could let go of his comfort blanket negativity we could be more effective than we are. Obviously there are no guarantees in football but there has to be more to life than trying to win 1-0 from a set piece every week.

[sheikhmomo]

Mar 19, 2012 14:18:20 GMT rawli said:

Mar 19, 2012 13:36:03 GMT jstoke7 said:

Ding Ding Ding Ding!

Remember though, do we wanna be another Blackpool and end up playing that tippy-tappy shit that doesn't even exist and is just the way football is generally played nowadays?

I think we have reverted because of the fear of European football leaving us vulnerable to relegation. I hope the manager has the balls to be more entertaining and expansive next year.

Didn't at least half of yesterday suggest that he will?

I really do find the negative reaction to yesterday perplexing in the extreme.

[foster]

Mar 19, 2012 14:37:44 GMT sheikhmomo said:

Mar 19, 2012 14:18:20 GMT rawli said:

I think we have reverted because of the fear of European football leaving us vulnerable to relegation. I hope the manager has the balls to be more entertaining and expansive next year.

Didn't at least half of yesterday suggest that he will?

I really do find the negative reaction to yesterday perplexing in the extreme.

Don't think people are that bothered about the fact that we lost. More that TP said we were going to put out positive team, then played well for 30 minutes (passing) then did nothing for the remainder of the game once we reverted back to the long ball.

I'm afraid that until (if ever) Tone starts to adopt a more passing style, the same topic will arrise week in week out, when we're not winning.

[onionman]

Mar 19, 2012 14:33:09 GMT @robvandeurzen83 said:

Mar 19, 2012 14:13:18 GMT onionman said:

You're right about last season, but Pulis deserves credit for us clicking in the first season. We had a poor team for the first few months and had to scrap for every point ... then he made a couple of inspirational signings and we could take the games to teams a bit more.

I think all mid-table teams are streaky aren't they?

We were always streaky in the second division, no matter who the manager - Mills, Pulis, Boskamp. We'd win two in a row and you think we're set for a play-off push, then we'd lose two in a row and you're worried about relegation.

We're doing the same thing in the Premier now. Some people don't like to hear this, but that's progress.

I think most teams outside the top six are indeed streaky and TP does deserve credit for those signings and for getting things to click last season.

I just think if he could let go of his comfort blanket negativity we could be more effective than we are. Obviously there are no guarantees in football but there has to be more to life than trying to win 1-0 from a set piece every week.

The comfort blanket is definitely a thing with TP.

Walters is his comfort blanket because he epitomises everything he believes in, probably more than any player we've ever had. While Walters is on the pitch, Pulis can relax.

I'm hoping Pulis will have the courage to bring in a quick striker in the summer and leave his comfort blanket on the bench. He can always wheel him back out again if it looks like we're getting into a relegation scrap.

[bunnyscfc]

I think a comfort blanket up front with Crouchy might be a better option. <winky>

[jstoke7]

Mar 19, 2012 14:18:20 GMT rawli said:

Mar 19, 2012 13:36:03 GMT jstoke7 said:

Ding Ding Ding Ding!

Remember though, do we wanna be another Blackpool and end up playing that tippy-tappy shit that doesn't even exist and is just the way football is generally played nowadays?

Jesus Hates Christ - there are more than 2 types of football - it is possible not to play the boring one dimensional shite dished up this season without playing the fabled tippy tappy shit that ends in certain relegation.

We managed to play the kind of football we want for the last quarter of last season. Genuinely exciting football.

I think we have reverted because of the fear of European football leaving us vulnerable to relegation. I hope the manager has the balls to be more entertaining and expansive next year.

Rawli, I know that and I'm not saying there is only one way to play, but as a general consensus football is moving a certain way and I would like to see us move a bit in that direction too.

What pisses me off is this tippy-tappy bollocks, and the assumption that any team that plays football is certain to go down.

Why even call it tippy tappy, as you say it's all football, and there are different styles and it makes us just as bad labelling it as tippy tappy shit as the people who lambast our style of play.

IMO (I might be wrong and hope I am) Pulis will never change and the priority will always be to get to 40 points by whatever means possible (shit football) and then he may let the shackles off after that. I don't think that will ever change.

Unfortunately, that's not good enough for me anymore, we are established now and I'd like to see some more creativity/technique and skill involved.